H.O.P.E. Imaging: Excellence in Diagnostic Analysis

Company Profile

H.O.P.E. Imaging is a radiology imaging center in Loma Linda, California which opened its doors in November 2005. The imaging center features state-of-the-art imaging technologies:

High Field Open MRI

PET/CT

Echo-Ultrasound

Computed Radiography (CR)

The imaging center is owned and operated by Dr. Soleimanpour, a neuro-radiologist, diplomat American and is also present on the Board of Radiology. The vision of H.O.P.E Imaging is to create a patient and community centric imaging center which provides the best in patient care using the latest radiological technologies available.

Business Situation

H.O.P.E. Imaging is focused on being the best at providing radiology services to the community. The clinical expertise of the staff combined with the latest radiology technologies helps ensure that they provide world class imaging services. H.O.P.E. Imaging places patient safety as a number one priority and strives to ensure an excellent overall patient experience.

The referring physicians are also a very important aspect of the H.O.P.E. Imaging business model. Since patients are typically referred by other physicians, it is important to provide the referring physicians the best possible services. This is done by rapidly providing the patient results report back to the referring physician. This can be sent via fax, email or made available digitally through the usage of a "web portal". The online portal allows the referring physician to securely view the patient report and the actual images from the radiology study over the Internet.

Additionally, it is a very competitive market and to effectively compete against existing imaging centers and local hospitals, H.O.P.E. Imaging needed to ensure their information technologies would provide the highest level of functionality. This would ensure that they could provide their patients and referring physicians with the best possible medical information and services.

To manage their business operations, H.O.P.E. Imaging requires a radiology information system and a picture archiving and communications system (RIS/PACS). This system must provide the core functional requirements to manage the flow of patient information and digital images being generated by the imaging technologies. The RIS provides the ability to schedule appointments, register patients, track exams, enable the radiologist to dictate the results, view digital studies and generate medical claim information.

Also, the imaging modalities used at H.O.P.E. Imaging can generate thousands of digital images which need to be stored, viewed, shared, retrieved and archived (for disaster recovery). The RIS needs to ensure this functionality is present. A very important and critical aspect to the imaging workflow is the diagnostic workstation which must provide high resolution and fast response. To ensure that the digital images being generated by each of the modalities were being viewed with the highest fidelity, Dr. Soleimanpour required a solution that would provide exceptionally high performance, stability and reliability.

Managing the Business of Radiology

H.O.P.E. Imaging chose the Guardian Technologies FlowPoint Radiology Information System (RIS) and Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS). This solution is a totally integrated system which provides all of the functionality required to manage the business operations.

The full solution includes all of the FlowPoint RIS and PACS software, server hardware, clinical personnel workstations and the diagnostic workstation. Additionally, professional services are included such as installation, training and support.

The speed and reliability of the diagnostic workstation was a very important aspect of the decision making process. The FlowPoint solutions deployed with dual Eizo 3 MP mono displays are paired with Matrox MED Series™ display controller boards for medical imaging. This is an excellent combination from a price-performance perspective. This system is also very easy to configure and install within a few hours.

Maintaining an Excellent Image

Dr. Soleimanpour has expressed his clinical and functional appreciation for the high visual quality offered by the Eizo-Matrox hardware used in the diagnostic workstation. The responsiveness of the system is especially important when scrolling through hundreds of digital images. The Eizo-Matrox solution enables fast scrolling without any flickering or delay (which can cause eye-strain).

The Guardian FlowPoint solution integrates voice-recognition into the workflow and includes the report dictation module using Dragon™ NaturallySpeaking®. Dr. Soleimanpour has the flexibility to navigate to multiple applications on the same system without any interruption of the dictation enabling a highly flexible workflow for the radiologist. Additionally, FlowPoint has incorporated the NeuroStar MediView Diagnostic Imaging software to provide the viewing capabilities.

This unique combination of integrated leading-edge technologies provides Dr. Soleimanpour with unparalled efficiency and effectiveness for his reading process. The speed in which the images are displayed by the Eizo-Matrox solution have dramatically improved the workload capacity that Dr. Soleimanpour manages on a daily basis. The clarity, fidelity and detail of the images enables the clinical analysis performed by Dr. Soleimanpour to be of the highest quality.

Dr. Soleimanpour said that the "diagnostic workstation provides excellent viewing of images and enables me to achieve an extremely high rate of productivity while and maintaining clinical viewing accuracy."

The H.O.P.E. Imaging business continues to grow and the FlowPoint solution continues to provide effective support for the management of the increasing volumes. By purchasing a matched hardware and software solution from Guardian that will scale with the business while performing at the highest levels of efficiency, Dr. Soleimanpour has maximized his return on investment and has immediately begun to realize the benefits.